Revival
by Ikuni Hattori
Summary: He woke up in a strange abode, to a woman he'd never seen before. His friends, gone, his parents, gone, only his Aunt and this strange woman for company. Well, he'd just have to go searching then, won't he? NOT RIKUXHELGA!youpervs


I decided to make this, because the one-shot cards told me to, haha. Anyway, as with all of my other one-shots, I'm debating about continuing it and making a chaptered story. But I don't know. Will anyone read sequels to my one-shots?

And to all Cinderella fans, I'm sorry for such a long wait. School's been a bitch to muscle through, but I have been writing more each and every day. It shouldn't be too long now. I'm hoping to get the next chapter posted sometime before Halloween, but Thanksgiving at the latest. Why? The week of Halloween is homecoming for my school and I'm involved in almost everything.

Look, now I'm just giving excuses. Oh well. :P Now, on to the story!

Character 1: Helga Hufflepuff

Character 2: Riku

Setting: Midgar

Theme: Hurt/Injured

Riku groaned in agony as light filtered through his eyelids. A soothing wet cloth was placed on his forehead. Water trickled down his face, tempting his eyelids open as a woman made gentle shushing noises. She turned in her knelt position to reach behind her for something. The teen took this chance to take in her features and determine whether she was friend or foe.

She had blonde hair that fell elegantly to her shoulders, but not like his. His was a platinum blonde, whereas hers was as yellow as the sun. She wasn't a stick-thin beauty, but neither was she portly. She wore what looked to be yellow and black robes. When she turned back to him, he saw that her eyes were black, clear, and sad.

"How are you feeling?" She brought forth a small bowl of water and offered it to him. Riku felt the heaviness in his limbs and the pains of stretching the muscles in his back as he reached for the water. It trickled down his throat. He almost sighed in relief.  
>"Better," he acknowledged. There was a pause. Then, "Where am I?"<p>

"What was the last thing you remember?" she asked, avoiding the question. The platinum blonde wracked his memories to see what he did remember. He gasped aloud at what he found, delving into the memory, oblivious to the look the woman gave him.

_ "Riku!" The warning came too late. A giant fist collided with the side of the keyblade master's head, sending him flying into a wall._

_ "Riku!" came a feminine shriek._

_ "Kairi! Watch out!"_

_ He was dazed. The blow to his head shook his sight, and as he rose unsteadily to his feet, his vision swam in front of him. When it stabilized, Sora was facing off with the behemoth before them. It swiped at the brunette, who deftly jumped over its paw. He attacked it with his keyblade and merely bounced off. Another swipe from the beast and Sora's body flew into the wall, his keyblade clanging to the ground several yards away. Donald was lying on the ground by the opposite wall, his eyes glassy and unseeing, his lower bill missing entirely. Goofy was neatly missing an ear, and had holes in his body from where the monster had bitten straight through him. He had bled to death about half an hour ago, merely minutes after Donald fell._

_ Riku charged at the beast, his steps staggering, Kairi's attemp to heal Sora barely registering in his mind. The unnamed beast took a swipe at Riku and sent him into the wall once more. Dazed again, he saw the beast advance on Kairi and the downed Sora. His eyes shuttered closed and Kairi's scream pierced through the darkness. There was a crunch and, a few rumbling steps later, he felt a hot, rancid breath blow on him. There was a low growl and through the darkness that held his senses, he felt the pain in his arm._

_ Something soft suddenly brushed against his cheek and the grasp on his arm disappeared. He felt someone take him into their arms. The pain receded enough for him to open his eyes. He managed to spot silver hair and black feathers standing protectively in front of him before the man possessing those features pushed the monster away and engaged it in battle. The arms holding him tightened briefly, reminding him of their presence._

_ The pain in his arm started to disappear, and he snuck a look to find his arm bloody and mangled almost beyond recognition. Riku let out a whimper as the whisper of green healing magic danced across his damaged appendage. A voice shushed him comfortingly, accompanied by a, "Hush, Darling. It will be over soon, I promise. I'm going to put you to sleep so you can heal faster. I promise to be here when you wake up." Her voice was soothing, familiar._

_ "Mother," Riku managed to choke out. The woman holding him smiled._

_ "Rest, my son," she told him, her curtain of black hair falling to embrace his head. "Your father is handling it. We would have come sooner, had the monster not had friends waiting in the wings." Her spell took a hold of his mind and his eyes closed once more. He felt a kiss placed upon his brown. Then, nothing._

He came out of his reverie, startled. His eyes lifted to meet with the woman's own. "Where am I?" he asked again, his lowered voice promising pain he could not back up.

"We're in Midgar, on Gaia. Sector 6 slums, to be more precise," the woman replied.

"How—. . .why. . ." he started but couldn't form his questions as his grief caught up to him.

"I found you in an alley in the marketplace. A woman with long black hair laid next to you. I couldn't take both of you at the same time, so I carried you here and went back for her. She was gone. I searched and could not find her. I came back and tended to you," she explained, correctly interpreting his thoughts.

"Who are you? Why would you help me?"

"Where I come from, I was a healer and cannot leave the wounded without aid. My name is Helga Hufflepuff and I'm a witch. I, and my 3 friends, founded a school to teach the younger generations our craft. A few years after everything was established, monsters started appearing everywhere. My world doesn't have such creatures. My friends disappeared, one by one. I was attacked by a monster the third night, and dragged to an empty field where I fought for my life. I killed the monster, it exploded, and knocked me out. I woke up here, on this world, and have been looking for my friends ever since. It's been over 10 years now, since I've come here, and I've never stopped searching."

Riku was speechless and, after Helga helped him into a position where he could sit without wincing, she started bustling around the small abode. As he looked around, Riku couldn't help but think that it resembled a lot like the inside of a clean sewer pipe.

A few minutes passed and a brunette woman wearing a pink dress appeared in the makeshift doorway.

"Helga! You have to see this!" she cried out, brandishing a newspaper. "You remember that man I was telling you about? He's come back!" Riku ducked his head, exhaustion creeping into his limbs.

"You mean Sephiroth?" Helga asked curiously, never having met the man. Riku's head snapped up.

"Mhm!" the brunette replied positively.

"How do you know my father?" Riku's voice cut through the woman's glee and she turned to look at the teen.

"Riku?" she exclaimed before rushing forward to embrace him, newspaper forgotten.

"Hi, Aunt Aerith," he replied before his breath got knocked out of him, recognition flaring in his irises.

"Wait," she stated as she pulled back and loosened her grip on him, already activating her cure Materia to finish healing his injuries, "if your father is here and you're here, where is my sister?"

"Last I knew, Mom was with me when Helga found me, but when she came back, Mom was gone," Riku replied.

"Well, let's just hope Sephiroth found her before anyone else did."

"Who else would find her?" Helga asked out of the blue. Aerith ground out her reply through clenched teeth, her eyes darkening as Riku let out a growl.

"Vitros."


End file.
